The Minister of Interior and former Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, on Friday declared that he belonged to The Osun Progressives, a factional group of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State.
The former governor said he belongs to the group chaired by Razaq Salinsile.
Aregbesola made the revelation during the commissioning of the Digital Nigeria Centre (DNC) at Ilesa, Osun State, in an obvious affront on the sitting governor, Gboyega Oyetola, with whom he had believably been at loggerheads.
“For anybody who seeks to know should know that APC has divided in Osun State. We have APC of Rauf Aregbesola which is chaired by Hon Razaq Salinsile and the other. Everybody is doing his or her own, later, we will renegotiate, we will rearrange everything,” he said.
“The caucus that produced our faction is called The Osun Progressives (TOP) chaired by Elder Lowo Adebiyi. Those people who are doubting whether I am part of TOP or not should listen up, I belong to TOP wholeheartedly.”
The Osun Progressives had asked Governor Adegboyega Oyetola to quit his position in the National Caretaker Committee of the party.
The demand for Oyetola’s resignation was one of the conditions placed before the Senator Abdullahi Adamu-led APC national reconciliation committee at a meeting held in Osogbo on Saturday.
According to sources, the meeting which commenced around 4:30pm and lasted for almost three hours, was attended by the factional APC Chairman in the state, Rasaq Salinsile, factional secretary, Lani Baderinwa and the ex-Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Kolapo Alimi.
It was further learnt that another demand of the faction supported by the Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola, was the recognition of executives elected by the group in its ward, local and state congresses.
